Essen 05

After two weeks in Berlin, our next journey is at Essen. Essen is more industrial in comparison to Berlin; there is the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, which symbolizes one of German three big products: coal, steel, and beer. Therefore, our professor took us to there in order to experience the unhealthy working situation of workers during industrialization.

Our tour guide brought us to the underground, it was very dark and dirty; he showed us their “bathrooms” back in the days, they were just buckets. They had to work a long shift while suffering an unhealthy working condition. Our tour guide also let us tried to hold their driller, it was very heavy, about 40 lbs since they did not have advanced technology to improve their equipment. Plus, the dust that was caused by mining underground, which is a nearly closed space triggered health issues at their lungs, many workers had after effects after working.

Then, the tour guide took us to one of the factories, there was a platform with 2 large speakers for us to experience the working noises back in the days. It was a continuous mechanic noise; imagining working with the noises from a long period, the hearing ability is probably damaged. Nonetheless, the tour guide told us that it was only the reduced amount of noise, the real situation was like 100 or 1000 louder than that. Along with the vibration of the driller, and the danger of mining, workers suffered really bad working experiences. However, their efforts were one of the forces that push society to progress, which people appreciates a lot.

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